Rome had,
moreover, an obligation of honour to fulfil towards Attalus her
faithful ally since the first Macedonian war, and had to prevent
Philip, who had already besieged him in his capital, from expelling
him from his dominions.

Lastly, the claim of Rome to extend her
protecting arm over all the Greeks was by no means an empty phrase:
the citizens of Neapolis, Rhegium, Massilia, and Emporiae could
testify that that protection was meant in earnest, and there is no
question at all that at this time the Romans stood in a closer
relation to the Greeks than any other nation--one little more remote
than that of the Hellenized Macedonians.

It is strange that any
should dispute the right of the Romans to feel their human, as well as
their Greek, sympathies revolted at the outrageous treatment of the
Cians and Thasians.